What's Hot Now: Eastern Redbud

Eastern Redbud trees are a spring bloomer that I often forget about.  The blooms are unassuming, at about ½” each, covering branches and stems in the spring before the leaves emerge.  They’re easy to miss after the flurry of ornamental cherries, etc.  Ornamental fruit tree blooms are showy, while these beauties are diminutive.  But overall, redbuds are better plants.  In the course of its life, the Redbud will grow 20’ tall and 25-30’ wide, with lovely heart-shaped leaves that are thin and flutter easily.  It is a durable plant with few pests and diseases, provided that the tree is not under stress.  But redbuds do require regular watering, particularly in drought conditions.  Like dogwoods, redbuds don’t like to be moved, so plant when the tree is young.  I think it’s particularly stunning as a multi-trunk tree, rather than having one central leader.  In its native conditions along the eastern seaboard, the redbud is an understory tree, meaning that it grows beneath larger trees, much like our native vine maples do in PNW forests.  In hotter climates, the redbud will prefer part sun, but in the PNW, they prefer more sun than shade.

A mature example of Redbud.

 

There is a variety, ‘Forest Pansy,’ that is particularly showy.  Its new foliage in the spring is a bright red-purple and the leaves mature to maroon.  In autumn, the leaves turn red to orange, depending on the day to evening temperature difference.  Other small trees with beautiful purple foliage include Cotinus (smoke bush), Diablo Ninebark (Physocarphus ‘Diablo’), and Black Lace Elderberry (Sambucus ‘Black Lace’).  All three of these have summer blooms, but Forest Pansy stands alone with its pink blooms on bare stems in the spring.  Quite lovely.

Forest Pansy in summer.  Photo from oregonstate.edu

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What's Hot Now: Flowering Dogwoods

Dogwoods are interesting.  The genus, Cornus, is divided into two main groups in my mind: those with colorful stems in winter and those with beautiful flowers in spring.  In this blog post, I’m going to focus on two that are grown primarily for their spring flowers and are small trees. 

 

The two most common flowering dogwood trees are the Eastern Dogwood and the Pacific Dogwood.  Both are beautiful, but one is more prone to disease and insects in our area than the other.  Can you guess which?  It’s the one that isn’t a native to PWN.  Yes, the Cornus florida (Eastern Dogwood) is stunning, but it suffers from more insect damage and disease than its Pacific cousin, though Cornus nutallii can also suffer from anthracnose.  A fungal disease that is caused by wet, cool springs and exasperated by plant stress, anthracnose has been causing problems within the dogwood community on the east and west coasts.  (Cool, wet springs in Oregon?  That would never happen.)

Drupes.  Photo from carolinanature.com

But enough of the depressing talk; let’s coo over its beauty.  These small trees generally don’t grow more than 20’ tall, but have lovely white or pink blooms in spring.  C. florida blooms slightly earlier than C. nutallii.  In late summer, both produce clumps of drupes (or berries) that turn red and are an added attraction that the birds enjoy, too.  In autumn, the leaves turn a lovely red before falling.

For both C. florida and C. nutallii, the bark is susceptible to sunburn, so part sun conditions are best, particularly with western shade.  (For my friends down south, yes, there are plants that get sunburn.  I thought it was a joke when I first moved up here, but it’s true. Unfortunately, that’s why these beauties would never be found south of the Red River.)  When planting dogwoods, be especially gentle, since C. florida tends to not like the transplant process.

All of the photos added to this post are of C. florida.  It's still a bit early for C. nutallii.

There is another flowering dogwood that I adore, but it is special enough to warrant its own blog post.  Check back soon to learn about the pagoda dogwood or Cornus alternifolia.  I’ve also heard it called the Wedding Cake tree.  Once you learn about this tree, you will covet it, too.

Why This Doesn't Work: Ornamental Fruit Trees

Ornamental Cherries:lovely but not worth it.

One of the most beautiful sights of spring is when the cherry trees bloom.  And when the sun comes out and illuminates those intoxicating pinks and whites, it's impossible to not be captivated.  My daughter asked, "Mom, why don't you spotlight the cherries on your blog?"  And while I agree that these trees have lovely blooms, I believe they should not be welcome additions to your landscape and therefore, not worthy of "What's Hot Now."

Here's why:

Short-lived.  When you plant a tree, you are investing in the future.  Trees take a long time to reach maturity and are valued because of the time and effort that goes into its health and beauty.  And while ornamental fruit trees are beautiful, they generally only live 15-25 years.

Suckers and Water Shoots.  These trees require annual pruning, immediately after their bloom time is over.  (If it is pruned in the summer, next year's blooms will be lost in the pruning process.)  Suckers, which come from the root zone, and water shoots, which grow on branches, are opportunistic growth.  Often with water shoots, which are vertically held on horizontal branches, they are not well attached to the branches and if left to grow, it will increase the likelihood of untimely breaks within your tree, compromising the aesthetics and creating an unsafe environment. So unless you have an arborist on staff, you'll need to hire someone or get on a ladder to clean it up yourself.  (I don't recommend the latter.  Be safe, everyone.)

Brittle Wood.  A couple of years ago, we had a late season snow in the PNW.  Really, it was just a dusting, but the added weight to the ornamental fruit trees, which were in bloom, was far too much for them to take.  Some of the largest branches of these trees broke off.  Those that survived had massive chunks that had to be pruned off, leaving many trees deformed.  And more than a few trees had to be felled because of extreme damage.  Not so surprisingly, many of the other trees survived the snow without incident.

Insects and Disease: Oh, let me count the ways.  Aphids, borers, scale, mites, leaf spot, cankers, and the PNW regular, powdery mildew.  Enough said.

Is it worth it?  If given the option, would you plant that ornamental cherry or would you plant a saucer magnolia?  Or if you want something smaller, how about a forsythia or even a dogwood?

I'm all for lovely blooms on trees.  But spring is short and life is long.  Plant trees that will outlive you as well as give you joy.

What's Hot Now: Deciduous Magnolias

Magnolia stellata

One of my fondest memories of attending The University of Texas at Austin happened on the north mall, in the shadow of the Tower.  On this mall was an ancient Southern Magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora).  It's glossy green leaves and giant white blooms swayed gently in the breeze while I stared up at it, laying on the grass, rather than reading my Constitutional Law homework.

So imagine my surprise when I moved to Oregon and learned that magnolias could be deciduous.  And that they didn't have to be 40' tall and 80' wide.  Two of the loveliest trees of spring are Magnolia x soulangiana or Saucer Magnolia and Magnolia stellata or Star Magnolia.  Though both are deciduous magnolias and can grow into large, handsome trees, their blooms are quite distinct.

Star magnolia blooms are generally white and strappy, meaning that their petals are much longer than they are wider and they tend to open in haphazard shapes, rather than unfurling in a tidy shape.  I have seen some varieties that have pink blooms, though I suspect this is a recent variety.  I've only seen small trees with the pink blooms.

From onlineplantguide.com

Saucer magnolia normally has soft pink blooms with tinges of stronger pink.  The petals are heavier and waxier, such as you'd find on a Southern Magnolia, but significantly smaller.  Sadly, I didn't get a photo of a saucer magnolia in full, glorious bloom.  This spring, my children became accustomed to me pulling the car over suddenly to exclaim about various plants and take photos like some stalker.  Yet in all my stalking, so photos of saucer magnolias.

For spring blooming trees, it's hard to beat the deciduous magnolias.

Why This Does Not Work: Unsafe Berberis

One of the most important principles in landscape design is right plant, right place.  This means that the designer (or whoever is selecting plants) chooses a plant that fits the light, soil, and size of the place it is intended.  But here is another consideration.  Don't put a plant with razor sharp thorns along a public stair railing.

This is one of my favorite plants: Berberis or commonly called barberry.  It's a great shrub, sometimes deciduous, sometimes evergreen.  I suspect this is Berberis darwinii, the evergreen cultivar.  It has tiny flowers that pop against the foliage in the spring and tiny red berries in the fall that persist into the winter.  Berberis has some of sharpest thorns in the plant world and at 1 1/2-2" long, could easily impale a person or animal.  This is a great shrub for a hedgerow, since the thorns enable it to function like a fence, but it creates a great refuge for birds to safely nest.

However, it isn't a good idea along a high school stairway, growing through the railing and trailing over the handrail.  Sometimes, things just scream out, "What were they thinking?"  Most likely, they weren't.